Moral Support

Everybody was exhausted from a long day of phonology, so my 30th birthday gathering fit twice the uninhibition (?) in half the time.  Thanks!

Happy Birthday

For her birthday, Wonderland got a fancy-hotel live-jazz all-you-can-eat-chocolate buffet, and she celebrated by making offensive gestures for the camera.

Thanks Wonderland

Cheapass Games (R.I.P.) could probably have charged more for a game I can play with a pendant, a Russian nesting doll, a box of dental floss, and a packet of silica gel. 

PANCAKES!

... with real Maple and Saskatoonberry syrups!  Plus two fruit salads composed with complementary distributions of fruit! Nota bad way to start a morning.

MARSBLOG: All Martha, All the Time

Offers to take Martha to The Mall while she was here were met with nothing but eye-rolling, so instead I took her in to see the department. Despite being an engineer by training, Mars almost immediately made my toy helicopter fail to fly:She made up for it, though, by being brave enough to open the door I sure as hell never would have.
I tried to tell her that Timmy's isn't as popular out here, but my claim was undermined almost immediately: Sure, Waterloo has four of them on campus, but you can't stand in the same place and see two of them.
When Martha heard that Edmonton had a Chinatown, she thought she'd like to check it out. I think she didn't think it would be very Chinese. It turns out she was right:
After knitting for a while at a hole-in-the-wall bubble tea place packed floor-to-ceiling with crates of mangoes, we went back to Jasper. Here's Mars at the arboretum, blithely unaware that she is about to be grabbed by a giant cactus monster
Before heading back across the river, we stopped in at the Macdonald for a little repose:
Martha was a little bit confused by this sign:
...but I thought it was pretty self explanatory: "Queen Elizabeth swimming in river: THIS WAY"

Anyway, we met up with a bunch of linguists on our way to dinner. I guess they were excited to see us:

That's Sullay's laugh you hear in the video. He was so impressed, he decided to give it a try for himself:
Eventually we made it to the restaurant, where they served us tasty Indian food by the bucket load:All in all, a great visit.

Security

Alison and I were bouncers for the department party last night. You can see how seriously she took the job, both by how she's dressed and by how she's started a lineup to prevent the club/classroom from exceeding capacity. We must have slipped up at some point, though, because one of these people is probably a minor.

Environmental Engineering

You know who's made the department an even nicer place to be? Alison. Lots of people decorate their work spaces, but she decorates hardcore. We're talking seasonal hardcore. Free halowe'en candy hardcore. Be jealous.